In recent years, the desire to improve vehicles by dampening the noise or vibration that can be generated or transmitted within the cavities of vehicles (such as the various pillars or other hollow structural members typically present in vehicles) has led to the development of acoustic baffle devices that comprise a carrier made of heat resistant plastic or metal to which is mounted one or more portions of a heat activated foamable resin material. The device is positioned within a vehicle cavity and then subjected to heating, causing the resin material to foam and seal off the cavity. However, because of the many different vehicle designs that are being produced and the need to simplify, and thereby lower the cost of, vehicle production, further improvements in such devices are still needed and desired.
For example, in the case of vehicles that may be equipped with sun roofs, it will often be required to introduce drain tubes into one or more cavities that facilitate the removal of water from the area around the sun roof. Typically, such drain tubes are provided after the pillar cavities of the vehicle body have been sealed by means of an acoustic baffle device. However, this is difficult to accomplish without damaging the baffle device and affecting or even destroying its acoustic dampening characteristics. A possible solution for this problem is to include a preconstructed opening in the baffle device, capable of and suitable for receiving a drain tube. However, if such drain tube is not installed, the acoustic dampening performance of the baffle may be compromised due to the opening. One could avoid this by using two different baffle device designs, one having an opening (for installation on vehicles having sunroofs) and another without such an opening (for installation on vehicles without sunroofs). However, this would significantly increase the complexity and cost of producing such vehicles.
There is consequently a strong need for an acoustic baffle system avoiding such disadvantages according to the state of the art, i.e., a device that makes possible the passage of a drain tube (or any other similar object such as an electrical cable or conduit) in a cavity, particularly a pillar cavity, of a vehicle after the expansion of a heat activatable sealing material and that furthermore preserves the acoustic performance profile of the baffle when no such tube or similar device is introduced in the cavity.